Saturday's letters: Not welfare

Published: Saturday, May 25, 2013 at 4:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Friday, May 24, 2013 at 5:14 p.m.

To the editor: I object to the term “welfare state” in George Will’s May 12 column. I don’t think it is helpful to discuss “welfare” states or “failed” states. Rather, we need to focus on functioning states.

FDR’s Works Progress Administration programs, which I experienced firsthand, are fine examples of such. Nobody received anything without working!

I remember when FDR was president and I was an upcoming sophomore at Georgia Tech. Word came that federal money was available to build a naval armory at the end of the Tech stadium. The grant did not include money for the design of the building.

Tech President Marion L. Brittain presented the problem to my father, a faculty member in the Department of Architecture. That department was languishing with fewer students than usual because of the Depression. Papa offered to “tell the unemployed workers where to lay the bricks” in exchange for a year’s tuition for me.

Public money combined with individual initiative and bartering gave badly needed jobs to the unemployed, justified my father’s position and gave me an education. If that be “welfare,” we need more of it!

James Herbert Gailey Jr.

Hendersonville

Guns do kill

To the editor: As “a writer must supply a list of the sources on which his information is based,” a number of us skeptics about Stephen Jones’ assertion that more people are killed by knives than by guns are interested in his “source.”

We have never read anything supporting that allegation. And, unlike tragedies such as Columbine, Dunblaine, Virginia Tech or Sandy Hook, a knife wielder would have been subdued after killing but a fraction of the number that guns are capable of.

As for automobiles, vehicular deaths are an unfortunate outcome of drivers often driving too fast and/or too close to the vehicle in front (can anyone say NASCAR?). Cars were invented as a means of transportation. Deaths are an unintended consequence.

Guns, on the other hand, were invented for the sole purpose of killing (bows and arrows — and knives — not being lethal enough).

And yet the gun fanatics parade these hackneyed, and long since discredited, attempts at obfuscating what is a simple matter — guns do kill, and it can never be said with certainty that a seemingly sane person won’t go berserk.

<p>To the editor: I object to the term welfare state in George Will’s May 12 column. I don’t think it is helpful to discuss welfare states or failed states. Rather, we need to focus on functioning states.</p><p>FDR’s Works Progress Administration programs, which I experienced firsthand, are fine examples of such. Nobody received anything without working!</p><p>I remember when FDR was president and I was an upcoming sophomore at Georgia Tech. Word came that federal money was available to build a naval armory at the end of the Tech stadium. The grant did not include money for the design of the building.</p><p>Tech President Marion L. Brittain presented the problem to my father, a faculty member in the Department of Architecture. That department was languishing with fewer students than usual because of the Depression. Papa offered to tell the unemployed workers where to lay the bricks in exchange for a year’s tuition for me.</p><p>Public money combined with individual initiative and bartering gave badly needed jobs to the unemployed, justified my father’s position and gave me an education. If that be welfare, we need more of it!</p><p><em>James Herbert Gailey Jr.</em></p><p><em>Hendersonville</em></p><h3>Guns do kill</h3>
<p>To the editor: As a writer must supply a list of the sources on which his information is based, a number of us skeptics about Stephen Jones’ assertion that more people are killed by knives than by guns are interested in his source.</p><p>We have never read anything supporting that allegation. And, unlike tragedies such as Columbine, Dunblaine, Virginia Tech or Sandy Hook, a knife wielder would have been subdued after killing but a fraction of the number that guns are capable of.</p><p>As for automobiles, vehicular deaths are an unfortunate outcome of drivers often driving too fast and/or too close to the vehicle in front (can anyone say NASCAR?). Cars were invented as a means of transportation. Deaths are an unintended consequence.</p><p>Guns, on the other hand, were invented for the sole purpose of killing (bows and arrows  and knives  not being lethal enough).</p><p>And yet the gun fanatics parade these hackneyed, and long since discredited, attempts at obfuscating what is a simple matter  guns do kill, and it can never be said with certainty that a seemingly sane person won’t go berserk.</p><p>If he does, let’s hope he wields a knife or car, not a gun.</p><p><em>Vic Urbaitis</em></p><p><em>Hendersonville</em></p>